Paperwork Snafu Prevents Sioux Falls Skyforce Return

It’s too easy to use the term “Shanghiaed” in this instance, but it fits so well.  Donald Sloan cannot rejoin the Sioux Falls Skyforce to bolster the team for a playoff run.  Sloan left the team in February to play for Guangdong which eventually won the Chinese Basketball Association championship.

In the process of leaving the CBA, Sloan is under the auspices of FIBA the international governing body of basketball.  It appears that the turnaround is a little too quick for Sloan to be added to the Skyforce roster for a potential NBA Development League playoff run.

Is it really too quick?  Here’s where the kettle starts to boil.  The announcement of Sloan’s China deal was on February 13th.  Sloan replaced Terrence Jones who then was added to an NBA roster on February 20th with the Boston Celtics.  Guangdong won their title on March 29th so Sloan could have conceivably been added to the Sioux Falls roster by April 5th if the same standard applied.

Question answered.  The same standards don’t apply because FIBA will probably expedite a request from the NBA sooner than they would from the NBADL.  You could throw three kinds of tantrums, but that’s the pecking order.  Plus maybe the guard from Texas A & M could still get a call-up from a team prior to the end of the season in the Association.